Method of using natural gas as a fuel



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A. SGHAEPER. METHOD 0F USING NATURAL GAS As A FUEL.

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A. SGHAEPER. l METHOD 0F USING NATURAL GAS AS A FUEL. N0. 297,638. Patented Ap1.29,1884.

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ADAM SOHAEFER, OF SHARPS-BUR'G, PENNSYLVANIA.

METHOD OF USING NATUIRAL GAS AS A FUEL.

y SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 297,638, dated April 29, 1884.

Application filed November 21, 1883.

To LZ whom it may concern.-

Be it-known that l, ADAM SCHAEFER, of the borough of Sharpsburg, countyV of Allegheny, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in the Method and Means for Utilizing Natural Gas as a Fuel; and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description ofthe same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a vertical longitudinal section of a boiler-furnace showing means adapted for carrying out my invention. Fig. 2 is a front elevation. Fig. 3 is a rear elevation. Fig. 4

is a detail perspective view of the tube f ory air and gas mixing conduit, the gas-supply nozzle c, and a register or valve forregulating the amount of air which is admitted to mix with the gas.

Like letters refer to like parts wherever they occur.

My invention relates to ,method and means of utilizing for purposes of fuel the natural gas now so readily obtainable in various localities; and it consists, first, in combining or mixing air with the gas and heating the mixture prior to ignition, whereby a more perfeet combustion, clearer iiame, and greater heat is obtained than is now obtainable from natural gas; and, secondly, in apparatus for combining and heating the mixture of air and y gas, as will hereinafter more fully appear.

Manufactured gas or carbonic oxide, as commonly employed for fuel, is a fixed gas, the character of which can be determined and the combining equivalent of air to produce complete combustion therewith can be ascertained; but vnatural gas as obtained varies in character and quality, often being surcharged with hydrocarbon vapors, and is apt to burn with a smoky flame for lack of proper amount and association of atmospheric air at the place of combustion. To overcome this smoky iame and loss of fuel, I mingle more or less air with the natural gas and heat the two together,

whereby the air will take up the vaporous hydrocarbons present, proper admixture of the air and gas to facilitate combustion is obtained,

' and the volume of efficient fuel is augmented, 5o so little or no loss of fuel results. The amount (No model.)

of air admixed with the gas will depend upon whether or not additional air is to be supplied at the place of combustion. I prefer and have therefore shown devices wherein the entire volume of air required is mixed and heated with the gas.

I will now proceed to describe the invention more specically, so that others may apply the same.

In the drawings, A indicates the walls of a 4boiler-furnace, wherein is set a boiler, B, said furnace'having a combustion-chamber, a, and the usual iiues leading therefrom to the stack.

(The character or class of furnace is immate- 4the many arts to which the invention is appli-y cable.

At the rear of the furnace is a main or con- `duit, O, for the gas-supply, and rising therelfrom are aseries of smaller pipes, c, each provided with a valve, d, and by preference terminating in a nozzle, e.

vArranged on the bottom of or in the fiue by which the products of combustion escape are tubes f, corresponding in number with the number of pipes c, and said tubes f, whose diameter considerably exceeds the diameter of tubes c, project beyond the furnace-wall at therear end, are open, as shown, and receive the ends or nozzles e of tubes c. The open ends of said tubes f are guarded by registers or valves m, which surround the ends of tubes c, so that by opening the valves or registers more or less the volume of air which enters tubes f for admixture'with thegas maybe controlled. The tubes f extend forward through the combustion-chamber a and project at the front of the furnace. posed of any number of sections, and to obtain the best results the several sections should increase in diameter as they approach the combustion-chamber c, or hottest part of the furnace, so as to allow for expansion of the gases and avoid the forcible delivery of the gases, which would result if expansion were not provided for. This gradual increase in diameter of the tubes will be seen by comparing tubes f f (Shown in dotted line, Fig. l.)

The tubes f, if of iron or other material liable Tubes f f may be com IOO to be injured by excessive heat, should be prol der to so associate the air and gas as to protected by a covering of sand or ire-brick.

Secured to the fire-chamber end or front end of tubes f are delivery-nozzles (or burners) g, of elbow or curved form, and the diameter of this delivery-nozzle or burner gradually increases from the point of its attachment to the tube f toward its mouth, so that the iow of the gas, &c., may be gentle and uniform.

Where the gas-supply pipes c enter the mixing-tubes f they may be surrounded by ahood, 71 if desired.

The devices hereinbefore described or their equivalents will be operated as follows in carrying out my method of burning natural gas: The natural gas from the well will be conducted to the furnace by the conduit C, and, the valves (Z being opened the desired distance,will be delivered through pipes cinto the open rear end of tubes f, the iiow of the gas inducing the air-supply; or, if desired, an air-blast may be used by the usual means of producing the same. The connningled air and natural gas pass through the tubes f and escape from the nozzles g into the combustion-chamber awhere they are ignited. The products of combustion pass backward through the waste-product iiue, delivering up their heat to the advancing mixture of air and gas, and the air, as it becomes heated, absorbs any vaporous hydrocarbons with which the natural gas may be surch arged, the volume of the gas is augmented, the air becomes intimately intermingled with the gas, and the whole highly heated, so that by the time the combustion-chamber a is reached all conditions essential to a clear flame of high temperature are obtained.

I am aware that the air and gas have heretofore been heated prior to their union at the place of ignition; and I am also aware that manufactured fixed gases have been mingled or intermixed with air prior to ignition, iu orduce the mechanical conditions most favorable to complete combination or combustion, and do not herein claim either of said processes; but,

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 1s-

1. The method herein described for burning natural gas, which consists in mixing air with the natural gas as it comes from the well and heating the admixture prior to ignition, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

2. In devices for admiXing and burning natural gas, the combination, with a gas-supply pipe, of a gas and air admixing conduit the diameter of which is greater at the delivery end than at the receiving end, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

3. In devices for admixing air and natural gas and burning the same, the combination of an admixing-conduit whose diametersincrease from the receiving to the delivery end, and a burner or delivery-nozzle which increases in diameter from its receiving end to its mouth, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

4. In a device for adniixing air with natural gas and burning the admixture, the combination, with the open-ended conduit, which gradually increases in diameter, of a gas-supply pipe projecting into itsv open. end, where the diameter of the conduit is the least, and an expanding nozzle or burner secured to its opposite end, or where the diameter of the conduit is the greatest, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 17th day of November, A. D. 1883.

ADAM SCHAEFER.

Witnesses:

AUGUs'r KAMMER. WM. J. McKnn. 

